Mission

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The Action Center's mission is to provide an immediate response to basic human needs and to promote pathways to self-sufficiency. We do this through our continuum of services to families and individuals of Jefferson County. Since 1968, the Action Center has been providing essential stabilizing services to the people in Jefferson County who are in danger of becoming homeless, or attempting to move out of homelessness. It serves as a haven of hope for the thousands of homeless, near homeless, and working poor who come through our door every year. People can receive assistance with a five-day supply of food, clothing for the whole family, necessary household items, and medical care.

Mission

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The Action Center's mission is to provide an immediate response to basic human needs and to promote pathways to self-sufficiency. We do this through our continuum of services to families and individuals of Jefferson County. Since 1968, the Action Center has been providing essential stabilizing services to the people in Jefferson County who are in danger of becoming homeless, or attempting to move out of homelessness. It serves as a haven of hope for the thousands of homeless, near homeless, and working poor who come through our door every year. People can receive assistance with a five-day supply of food, clothing for the whole family, necessary household items, and medical care.

Impact Information

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Impact Information

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Charting Impact

What is your organization aiming to accomplish?

The Action Center's goals are to Give Help, Provide Hope and Build Dignity for each and every individual and family who is seeking to maintain or regain self-sufficiency.

What are your strategies for making this happen?

We accomplish our goals through a multi-layered approach: We provide INTERVENTION SERVICES to assist clients in crisis, providing food, clothing, and financial assistance toward housing and more; PREVENTION SERVICES help alleviate situations that could hinder self-sufficiency, such as our School Supply, Thanksgiving and Santa Shop Distributions; INTENSIVE CASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS for clients who are motivated to build stability through goal-setting, education, and skill-building groups; and CONNECTION ASSISTANCE designed to support individuals and families on the continuum to self-sufficiency through a collaborative and interactive referral system we maintain with a variety of community partners.

What are your organization's capabilities for doing this?

The agency has 49 employees and utilizes the services of over 6,000 volunteers to provide support to over 25,000 unduplicated clients a year. In 2016, our board, staff, and volunteers created a new strategic plan for 2017 – 2020. This plan includes a continued focus on financial stability, mission fulfillment, cultivation of donors and community involvement. The Action Center utilizes a collaborative approach to leadership and program planning. Monthly all-staff meetings are held to discuss all key matters impacting clients, board and staff members and volunteers. Each department of The Action Center holds weekly team meetings for more in-depth planning. Planning of new programs takes our mission, strategic plan, and feedback from the people we serve, and our community partners, into account. The Action Center is inherently partner-centric, not only referring our clients to a variety of collaborating agencies as they move across the continuum toward self-sufficiency, but sharing resources and working across sectors to find better and more efficient ways to help families in need. While we offer a multitude of programs and services, as highlighted in this proposal, we are also a major referral agency, assisting clients with permanent/supportive/transitional housing, healthcare and mental health needs, educational goals, and much more by referring them to our collaborating partners. We refer clients continually to ensure that they are getting the services they need. We are not interested in duplicating services. We believe it is more effective to work with and refer to partners for specialized services that we don't provide. In turn, our community partners continually refer clients to us.

How will your organization know if you are making progress?

(a) The Action Center uses the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), developed by HUD, as a database to confidentially aggregate data on homeless populations, their characteristics and programming needs. This information is gathered when a client enters The Action Center for the first time, and is updated each time they come back. Client demographics are collected with this system, and measured with other low-income and homeless populations. Through motivational interviewing practices, written surveys and questionnaires, qualitative data is also collected by Case Managers and Client Advocates to determine client needs, barriers, and strengths in their pursuit of self-sufficiency. For our case-managed programs, we also utilize the Self-Sufficiency Matrix Assessment Tool, commonly referred to as the Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix, to measure participants' progress within the After Care Program. This evidence-based tool explores 20 different domains to assess a client's self-sufficiency. Each domain is rated on a 1-5 scale, ranging from in-crises to thriving, and the total scores range from 20-100. The Case Manager completes assessments pre-, mid- and post-intervention. We've also collected inspiring anecdotal stories, with participant's permissions, about their journeys from hardship to family stability.

What have and haven't you accomplished so far?

The Action Center is unique, as it offers the single most comprehensive range of services to the poor, the working poor, and the homeless in metro Denver's Jefferson County. We employ experts in the field to facilitate our client services, and with our 48-year history of successfully providing clients an array of multidisciplinary services, we are a nonprofit stronghold with a highly recognizable brand. Many of the people we serve face issues much larger than we alone can help them to solve -- such as the skyrocketing cost of rent and dearth of affordable housing. This is why it's imperative that we maintain an interactive and collaborative network of community partners -- including the managers of local housing complexes to whom we refer program participants of The Action Center. We are also active on many task forces and committees around the community in order to address larger issues collectively. For instance, our Executive Director was appointed to the Child/Youth Leadership Commission, made up of family-serving agencies and local jurisdictions, that works to streamline services for children and youth. Our leadership is also highly involved with Heading Home, a collation that addresses the issue of homelessness in Jefferson County; in addition to the Food Policy Council, which discusses best practices, food access and nutrition issues. One of their recent accomplishments was making it possible for SNAP recipients to access locally grown produce at farmer's markets in Jefferson County. We are involved in many other community forums to work on solutions for low-income and homeless populations.

GuideStar's Gold Seal of Transparency is earned by completing five questions around an
organization's strategies, progress, and results, known as Charting Impact.
Charting Impact encourages strategic thinking about how an organization intends to achieve its goals.
The end result is a report that lets nonprofits share concise, detailed information about plans
and progress with key stakeholders, including the public.
This data is provided directly by nonprofits to GuideStar via their Nonprofit Profile.

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This impact information is current as of July 2019, when it was provided to us by GuideStar.
At this time, Impact information published on this organization's page has no effect on its rating per our methodology.

Financial Charts

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Programs (FYE 06/2018)

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Program names and associated costs are listed for the top programs as reported on the charity's most recently filed Form 990. The top programs displayed will include the largest three programs, or those programs covering at least 60% of the charity's total expenses, whichever comes first.